The Bitter-sweetness Of August — One Moore Thing

It is the exhaustion of the humidity and the heat and the wanting and needing to stay up too late to squeeze in every last drop of summer. It is the fear and the dread of the upcoming school year ahead and the excitement and the potential of it all that parades itself along with it.

It is drinking water from the hose. It is sand under your toes. It is the call of being free.

It is the feeling that there is never enough time and all the time in the world at the same time. It is never having enough snacks. It is all things wanting to grow. And let go. It is a month of yes. It is trying to balance the have tos and the want tos and feeling no matter what you are letting someone down. It is joy, bliss and guilt bundled in a sunburnt package. The hellos and goodbyes of the summer are almost too much to carry. Almost.

It is a month of one more. One more trip. One more dance. One more afternoon of driving with the windows down. One more late night swim. One more sunset. One more chapter.

It is the beads of sweat coating every part of you when you are holding a baby. It is wishing them older for a moment so that you could have your arms free again. It is watching your children run out to the sea, wishing they were babies to hold again. It is the scent of coconut sunscreen. The protests of the sunscreen. The begging for more snacks. The tears from the sheer fatigue of it all. But then there is the laughter. And that laughter is what carries us all the way home and back to the beach again and again.

It is finding the perfect pencil case, the perfect first day of school outfit, the imperfect perfection and anticipation of what September brings.

It is one continuous Sunday night and wishing you had more Saturdays.

It is all of it. And it is beautiful.

May all of your Augusts be filled with enough bittersweet sunlight to carry you the whole year through.

Katie’s essay and tangent collection about motherhood, life and imperfection, Happy Broken Crayons is available on Amazon now. Thank you for reading. You are the (queen) bees knees. Happy happy holidays and happy happy new year to you. In setting your hopes for 2018, please think about your word. I can’t wait to hear it. Xoxo

Katie Yackley Moore is a freelance writer, real estate agent, yoga instructor and a momma of four navigating life and a separation and finding herself in the process. She adores coffee shops, laughing until it hurts and impromptu dance parties. Her work has appeared on Scary Mommy, Mamalode and HuffPost Parents. She has published a journal entitled "Dream a Bigger Dream" and the children's books "You Are a Warrior" and "We are Family" and just finished her first novel. Catch up with her between tea breaks at The Naked Momma and on Facebook.